Five Dog Friendly Eastern U.S. Fall Getaways

It’s the time of year when the falling leaves form a quilt blankets across nation’s landscape. Before the temperature plummets and snow falls, consider taking a dog friendly trip or two with your best furry friend. The eastern part of the United States has many day, weekend, and week-long fall getaways for pet parents who travel with a dog.

This is one of our favorite best kept secrets across the nation. Thankfully, the east coast calls Inn by the Sea her home. Maine is one of the most pet-friendly states I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. Cape Elizabeth is a quiet town in Cumberland County and home to some gorgeous lighthouses. If you stay at the pet-welcoming accommodations at Inn by the Sea, you’ll have access to Crescent Beach and plenty of picturesque trees. The beach is conveniently located behind the inn. Crescent Beach State Park is closed to dogs completely from April 1 to September 30 due to Piper Plover nesting concerns- – although visitors are welcome to walk on the Park trails, and on the path that parallels the beach, or to go to the trails that go around Great Pond. In October the beach is open to dogs again until April.

Bonus: Freeport, Portland, and Kennebunkport are within reasonable driving distance of Inn by the Sea. LL Bean has its flagship 24/7 store in Freeport. Dogs are welcome to explore the grounds.

Arlington National Cemetery is pet-friendly for well-behaved leashed dogs…see?

One of the most pet-friendly towns I’ve ever visited is Provincetown, Massachusetts. Cape Cod hiking trails are enchanting. The federally protected uplands and bogs of the national seashore encompasses more than 27,000 acres and takes up more than half of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Both Wellfleet and Truro are near Provincetown, which is more beachy than tree-lined but a perfect spot to end a day of sightseeing with your dog. Provincetown is also a very open-minded, LGBT friendly, and progressive town. There are pet-friendly accommodations right in the heart of “P-town.”

Bonus: At this time of year, prices fall like autumn’s leaves in many of Commercial Street’s stores.

A complimentary breakfast with a huge variety of bagels, goodies, and more, baked fresh on site! This grand hotel located just 30 minutes from New York City is pet welcoming and very accommodating. A private dog park, pet friendly rooms, beautiful property to walk dogs on, and very helpful and accommodating staff make this a great weekend getaway.

Bonus: The hotel is removed enough from the hustle and bustle of New York City, yet close enough to visit if desired.

Pet-Friendly Long Island Wineries

Leashes and leaves, concords and canines: As the leaves turn, so do the grapes at America’s wineries and distilleries. What better way to spend a fall weekend afternoon than strolling the picturesque grounds of a winery, the crisp memory-invoking scents in the air with Fido along for the visit.

There are a plethora of pet-friendly wineries in the Long Island area of New York, one of which we visited this weekend. Thanks to the Martha Clara Vineyards for your pet-welcoming policy. My dog and his doggie pal had a wonderful time strolling the grounds, meeting the on-site farm animals, and being by our side as we savored some of the delectable wines available.

Bonus: The crisp scents in the air and the quaint appeal of the vineyards makes for great photo ops with your dog.

BONUS TIP FROM SLIM DOGGY

If stay-cationing is more your thing, our friends at Slim Doggy share their ideas, thoughts, and suggestions for making the most of a fun vacation from home with your dog. Check out the fun Slim Doggy staycation article here and let them know we sent you.

Got a favorite fall activity or getaway? Bark at us below in the comments section. We love learning about new places to explore with our pooch!

Comments

Fantastic post! We spend several months a year on the East Coast, particularly Long Island, NY so this is great info for us. We will definitely visit one of the wineries before Winter, didn’t realize they would be dog friendly! On the East Coast, we love to visit Long Island beaches after Sept 15th, when several beaches relax their restrictions on dogs. Love & Biscuits, Cathy, Isis & Phoebehttp://www.dogsluvusandweluvthem.blogspot.com

I have yet to have the chance to visit the eastern US. Someday, I hope. The wineries would be places I’d like to check out. Maya would love to go with me, but Pierson probably wouldn’t. He doesn’t like other dogs and it would put him in a frenzy to have to share the same space with a strange dog. All of us, though, would love to explore the trails.

We have been to Provincetown with our two golden retrievers every summer forever. It has been voted the dog-friendliest town in the US by Dog Fancy. Besides what was mentioned, dogs are welcomed in almost every store in the entire town, and there are a lot of stores. There are several restaurants with dog friendly eating areas and a top-rated dog park. They recently opened a doggy day-care, for people who want to go out without their dog. The beaches are also dog friendly. This year we took our dogs to an outdoor concert on the beach, which was really nice. They even let dogs on the trolley tour through the town, and on some of the boat rides. There are literally dogs everywhere you go there. They even have a Dog weekend in September, though we haven’t made it to that yet. In August they have Carnival Week, with a different theme each year. This year was Comic Capers, and our boys dressed up as Rainbow Brite to sit on their curb and watch the parade with us. They got so many pictures taken of them, and so much attention. It was so much fun, they even got biscuits thrown from some of the floats. We highly recommend going there any time of year!

Thanks for sharing these pet friendly locations. I wish I lived closer! Two years ago I did a fall East Coast road trip with 2 friends. We absolutely loved Maine! My problem is that Milo is too big to fly in the cabin on a plane and it’s just too far to drive.

2 questions for you.

Is Dexter small enough to fly on in the cabin with you (he looks about the same size as Milo)? If not, how do you handle air travel?

Do you find that most places you go allow you to leave Dexter in the room and let you go out? On my Blog Paws road trip (4000 miles across 9 states) I found that most of the hotels had a strict rule that you couldn’t leave dogs in the room unattended. I was so worried that Milo and Lexi would bark that we only snuck out a couple of times for a quick meal in the hotel…and we were nervous the entire time. I definitely would impact my willingness to travel with Milo if I couldn’t leave him at all.

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